My Journey of becoming a TCM Physician Chapter 6: And the Needling began with… Me !
Our Acupuncture class was scheduled to be done when we were in Beijing because the teachers were all clinical doctors and they were too busy to be arranged to fly over to Singapore to teach us.
It was one of the more anticipated class for all of us. The imagination of us being transported back in time to the martial arts era with learning all the names of the acupoints made things even more exciting.
For Acupuncture class, of course there was the practical part. We got to start putting in needle into live flesh live human one day no matter what, right? And acupuncture class embodied cupping practical as well, so all the very intensive elements like needles, fire etc were all consolidated into this one signature module.
Theory cleared up most of the misconceptions of acupuncture and how our ancestors locate the points. In fact each point had its own story and reason for its naming, so I’m sorry but to say for all the westernized acupuncture learnings with the replacement of the acupoint Chinese names with alphabets and numbers, you have missed out the historical and astrological essence of the acupoints, which actually played a very important part in the very existence and usage of the acupoints.
Learning to locate the acupoints on the human body was something that made me marveled at how energy points so subtle and sensitive could exist on our body all the time, without us realizing them. Although bones and joint structures were used as the main guide to locate the points, the last bit of situating the point always required the fingers’ sensitivity from the doctor, which was to be trained over years to come. For us, the locating of the acupoints became almost like a massage class as we tried to press and test on all possible points on our partners. For our maestros, they located just like the points already had a neon sticker glowing on the body part. Thinking back now, it was worlds apart in standard.
The real acupuncture needle was introduced to us and yes, the first human to be acupunctured by me is …. Me. Of course! Because we had to feel for ourselves how the patients would feel. I just remembered the class was filled with screeches and maybe screams as those that felt super confident with their ‘skills’ started poking on their neighbours. For me, I just remembered my hands sweat till my clothings that I had placed my palms on had the sweat imprints ….
Similarly, cupping was done on Patient Me first. And our very own thighs were the victimized part of experiment. Because the control of fire was amateur, sometimes, the cups could stick on too much and removal of cups was ‘excruciating’. Some daredevils then went on to start moving the cups around on the body, WITHOUT OIL. And at the end of the lesson, our thighs, calves, arms were left in rounds or lines of redness.
So guys, I do know how it feel to be needled and cupped, FIRST TIME in life. Physically and mentally. And I know the importance of the first experience, it will either make or break this person for this ancient lineage of healing. Because I was there before =)